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By Rose Hooper
Voters in Cherokee go to the polls today (Thursday) to decide
whether to place restrictions on absentee voting.
The issue became controversial during the Sept. 4 tribal election.
Several candidates, including Carroll Crowe, who lost in the race
for principal chief, contend, "irregularities in the absentee
voting unfairly and improperly affected the actual outcome of
the election."
They claim that only tribal members living on the reservation
should be eligible to vote in elections.
Others maintain enrolled members living off the reservation, including
out of state, should retain their voting rights.
The referendum question is "Should absentee voting be permitted
only for the following tribal members?
1. Tribal members serving on active military duty who are unable
to return to Cherokee to cast their votes;
2. Tribal members employed with the federal government assigned
to duty other than the Cherokee Indian Reservation who are unable
to return to Cherokee to cast their votes;
3. Tribal members enrolled in institutions of higher education
who are unable to return to Cherokee to cast their votes;
4. Tribal members who are employees of the tribe and are required
to be away from Cherokee for training or for reasons required
by their employment on the date of election who are unable to
return to Cherokee to cast their votes;
5. Tribal members who because of illness are in a hospital, nursing
home or other treatment facility and who because of their physical
condition and course of treatment are unable to return to Cherokee
to cast their votes; and
6. Tribal members who physically reside on Cherokee trust lands
but who will be absent from Cherokee on election day for business
or personal reasons and are unable to return to Cherokee to cast
their votes."
Tribal council transferred $40,000 from contractual line items
to the board of elections to cover the expenses for this referendum
election.
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